4. Two Roads
`Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.' Neville came from behind Hermione and sat on the same couch as she was reading.
`Excuse me?' Hermione asked politely. Neville seemed to have the uncanny ability to approach quietly when he was not clumsy.
`It's from the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. Haven't you heard of it?' Neville smiled. `I think you might like it. It's quite meaningful.'
`In what way?' Hermione closed her beloved Hogwarts: A History book.
`Oh, in many ways. Well I had better go, Professor Sprout wants me to help her with some potting of Screaming Daffodils." Neville got up and waved goodbye from the portrait hole even when his robes got caught.
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Like all the other times, silence was the first occurrence between the two of them. It was comforting, the silence. The room was dark, as the fire had long burnt down to mere embers. In the dim light, they could hardly see the other's face and that was perhaps better.
`We won't ever be the same again, will we?'
Silence.
`No.'
`A three never works does it?'
`It can, just not the way you want it to.'
`Am I selfish for wanting?'
`You are. You want but lie and hurt the unsuspecting. You think you yearn for times gone by but really your heart covets for wholeness, a wholeness fulfilled by one, not two.'
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood"
Silence reigns again.
`I love him you know.'
`There are many types of love: love of a brother, love of a friend, love of a lover…"
`Have you loved?' The voice is of an accusing tone.
`Why say "loved"?'
"And sorry I could not travel both…"
Silence is a mutual friend.
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Kisses with one's true love were described to be so sweet and so full. So why was it then that Hermione felt nothing? Certainly, she could not say that the sensation of being kissed was not unpleasant yet it was an emotionless kiss.
`Stop.' Hermione looks to the side and takes interest in a painting. The mother is singing her baby a lullaby.
Ron looks confused. `Did I bite you?'
Hermione says nothing and Ron continues to be perplexed.
`If you are a lone traveler and find two roads: one road less tread on and the other more worn, which would you take?' Hermione suddenly asks.
"And be one traveler, long I stood"
Ron frowns at Hermione's strange behavior but decides to comply and answer. `I would take the one which is more worn, wouldn't that mean that more people walked there?'
Hermione closes her eyes and whispers, `But I would have taken the one less treaded on.'
"And looked down one as far as I could"
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`Where do you belong Ron?' Hermione walks slightly ahead.
`Here, with you.' Ron replies as if he expects nothing else.
`But I do not belong here,' Hermione says softly, `I belong somewhere else.'
No words are spoken but a consensus is made. But then, a sudden realization.
`It's Harry, isn't it?'
A pause.
`Perhaps, but you and I are not for each other.'
`No, we aren't but why now, why ever?'
`Because once upon a time when everything was so new and love was but a fabled emotion and we were young and foolish..'
Another pause, a thoughtful pause.
`We'll always be friends.'
Hermione nods and smiles the first true smile in a long time.
`Where will you go? What path will you walk?' Hermione asks tentatively.
`I don't know but when I doubted, I couldn't help but look at someone else. Maybe she will walk with me.' Ron thinks of a person who likes to wear orange reddish earrings and smiles.
They start to talk like nothing passed between them but in the air is a sense of anticipation.
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by"
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`If you are a lone traveler and find two roads: one road less tread on and the other more worn, which would you take?' Hermione holds her breath. The math swirls around dizzyingly. One plus one plus one equals three, two plus one equals three…
`The less traveled on.'
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by"
`Let's walk together in to the unknown.'
`Always.'
"And that has made all the difference."
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A/N: Well it ended. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. It was actually fun to write this as I haven't actually written in this style before. I have to thank my math teacher for all the inspiration especially with The Road Not Taken poem.
So thankyou for all the feedback that I've had. It was very helpful and I hope I can still hear some thoughts on this closing chapter even though it may have seemed hurried.
Thankyou!
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
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